Ember Black
by Katherine Pitchiner12
Summary: "Who are you?" Asked Jack staring at the girl, he had never seen her before in his life. "I'm Ember Black" Ember said cautiously as she looked Jack up and down, she remembered Pitch's warning about the Guardians. "Ember... Black? No, that can't be..." Jack was stunned, this could only mean trouble. Pitch had blackened an innocent girls soul, something had to be done...


~_Ember's Story~_

_~Chapter 1~_

Ember was an ordinary girl to the human eye, but she was not like the rest of the world. No, she was far from ordinary. She was very talented, artistic, and saw the world like no other. She could always see the magic in things that usually no one else could, but she could also see the darker side of things. However, Ember kept these things to herself afraid of what others might think of her.

Ember's family never seemed to notice her talents; they just thought she was a normal seventeen year old that liked to keep to herself. They never had much to do with Ember; they weren't exactly a tight nit family. They would usually ignore her and let her do as she wanted, most teenagers would be glad to have this kind of family but Ember wasn't. She wanted to be close to her family, and to do things with them. But that never happened. So she was left to herself, her only true friends being her books and the shadows. Sure Ember had friends, but they never seemed to take much interest in her and tended to ignore her.

So Ember went on with her life as usual, keeping to herself and her thoughts. Writing stories and dreaming of a new life away from her own. Ember loved to dream, it took her to happier places where she could be herself and explore new things. She dreamed that she could create dreams and know how to control them, that she could even create nightmares. She often dreamed of a new family that loved her, and friends that were close to her. She loved to think of a place where she could frolic through meadows and play with the woodland animals, where she could climb the tallest oak tree and swing from branch to branch.

But she knew that her dreams could never come true, and had to wake up to reality once in a while. So she tried to make the best of her life. Making extraordinary grades in school, and trying to lead up to a good future. But she felt her life was empty, and missing something. She tried to ignore the feeling but it always seemed to find its way back to the front of her mind.

One day though, things got even worse for Ember. It had seemed like a normal day to her, it was fall break and she had spent her entire day reading outside. She loved fall, it was nice and cold and the trees had an unnatural beauty to them. Ember would stay outside until it was past dark and the moon was high above her. She loved to watch the moon, she had always seen a magic about it more powerful than anything else. She would always talk to the moon, it made her feel relaxed and comforted. She knew about Tislar Lunar, the man in the moon, and always felt like he would listen to her many thoughts when no one else would. It was true, though Ember didn't completely know it. Tislar Lunar loved to listen to Ember, and knew she was more than an average child.

But this night Tislar Lunar was more focused on another force at hand, Pitch was about and looking for trouble. Ember was just about to go inside for the night after finishing one of her books when she heard a scream from inside her house. The scream sent a shiver down her spine, it was her mother's. Though her family might not have loved Ember, she loved them and grew concerned. So Ember cautiously walked up to her house, she couldn't look through the windows to see what was going on because it was too dark. So she took a deep breath and silently walked inside, trying to listen and see where the scream came from. Ember heard crying from her parent's room and rushed over to see what was happening.

What Ember found made her legs weak; she had to hold the side of the wall to keep from falling. What she saw were fearlings, there long ghostly figures over her parents. They were killing them, fearlings were known for giving nightmares but not usually killing their victims. Ember had to put a hand over her mouth from screaming, she wanted to do something but she didn't know how to fight off a fearling. She had read a lot about them, but never did the books mention how to fight one off.

One last shriek escaped her mother's mouth and both her parents where dead just like that. It took all the strength that Ember had not to collapse to the floor, her parents where dead. She would never see them again, the emptiness inside her grew. Fear flooded her body as she tried to get closer to her parents. But the fearlings smelt her fear, and turned to her. They had a bone chilling laugh to them as they crept closer to Ember and surrounded her, consuming her sight. She didn't want to die, even if her life was meaningless her worst fear was death.

"Please, I don't want to die" Ember sobbed. Her fear consumed her; she was terrified of the end. She didn't want to leave the world. But the only thing keeping Ember from being fully consumed by fear was her loss. All she had really wanted in life was to have someone who cared for her, a family. But know that was taken from here. The loss filled her, keeping the fear at bay. Ember fell to her knees, and put her head in her hands. She sobbed tears of sorrow and from the fear of death, they fell down her cheeks making her face wet.

Her sobbes caught someone's attention though, Pitch Black. He could tell that she wasn't crying from just her fear, but from her longing for a family. An idea instantly popped into his head making him smirk. He had watched Ember since she was a child, knowing she was different from the other children and that she could do great things. He had always wanted to make Ember his, but never had an opportune moment. But know he had one, and he wasn't about to let that chance go.

So Pitch let the fearlings close in around Ember, consuming her with dread and making her feel helpless. Ember tried to keep herself calm, but it was useless. She muffled a tiny scream through gritted teeth; she needed to get out of here.

"Help, someone please help me" Ember begged in a tiny voice barely audible through the shrieking fearlings. After another moment Pitch finally decided to help her, ready to make his move.

Pitch stepped out of the shadows making himself tall and menacing. As soon as he approached Ember the fearlings fled back to the shadows, cowering before their king. It took a moment for Ember to realize that the fearlings had stopped surrounding her, through tear stained eyes she looked around to see what had made the fearlings flee. Her eyes instantly found Pitch, freezing her to where she knelt. Fear coursed through her once more, making her shake uncontrollable. She knew he was a dangerous man and had the highest respect for him, but he was more terrifying than she had ever imagined. But Ember became confused, why did he stop the fearlings from killing her? Pitch usually wasn't the type to be merciful, so why was he saving her from a terrible fate? The questions buzzed around her head, taking her mind off her fear for a minute.

"Hello, Ember" Pitch said as he came to stand over Ember, a smirk on his face.

"T-Thank you…" That was all Ember could manage to say. The sound of her name sent chills up her spine, how did he know her name? Pitch let out a little laugh and extended his hand to her. She hesitated before excepting his hand and he helped her up to her feet, still a little shaky she grabbed the side of the wall she was closest to for support. She wanted to run, but she didn't have the strength to make an attempt.

Suddenly her eyes caught sight of her parents, the longing flooding her once again and tears spilled down her cheeks. She leaned against the wall, her head in her hands.

"Come now Ember, they aren't worth the tears you shed for them. They were heartless people who would have traded your life for theirs in a heartbeat." Pitch taunted as he moved closer to Ember. Ember felt a jab at her heart, she knew Pitch was right. She was wasting her tears on people who never even loved her, but they were still her family.

"I know that you want to be a part of a loving family, Ember. I know what it's like to long for a family to love just as you do. I can help you; I can take you away from this place. You have always wanted to get away haven't you?" Pitch lifted Embers chin so that she would be looking him straight in the face, with his thumb he wiped away one of her tears.

Ember knew that Pitch was right; she wanted to get away from this place and be with a loving family. Pitch was offering her the chance to be with one, and a chance to chase a new dream. Ember nodded yes, she wanted to get away desperately. Pitch smiled, looking Ember up and down.

"I can make your life so much better, and grant you your wishes. I can be the loving father you never had, and you the daughter I never had. Consider it Ember, we could be happy together." Pitch pulled his hand away from Ember and stood looking down at her, waiting to see if she would answer.

Ember couldn't believe she was actually considering Pitch's offer after he just killed her family. But what did she have to loose, she had no friends and no family. If she didn't accept she would be all alone, and probably would be killed by a fearling. Ember went through the offer one more time, and made a decision.

"… Take me away from here." Ember felt a pang of guilt for accepting his offer even after he just killed her parents, but she had a family again. Pitch grinned; it looked eerie on his face. He strode forward and took Ember in his arms.

"This will only take a moment." Ember felt almost safe in his arms, but she was grew scared. Pitch was about to blacken her soul, and there was no going back after that. The darkness enveloped them; she could see nothing but blackness. Her veins throbbed, the blood turning black. She grew cold, like she would never feel warm again. It felt as if someone was ripping at her soul, the darkness was starting to consume her. The pain was so bad she had to cling to Pitch just to keep from falling back down to her knees.

"It hurts." Ember gritted her teeth trying to ignore the pain and focus on the life ahead of her, but it was too much.

"Change always does my dear." Pitch said, kneeling so that Ember wouldn't have to stand. After another moment, Ember was completely blackened. Her soul had been corrupted, and some of her memories forgotten. When she opened her eyes they were no longer in her old house, but in Pitch's lair. The pain was gone, but she felt different.

Ember even looked different; her eyes had gone from green to a silvery color with hints of gold. Her skin was no longer a dark tan, but pale and shadowy. Even her cloths had changed. Instead of wearing shorts and an old band T-shirt, she now wore a long black dress. The hems looked like they disappeared in to the shadows, and the sleeves looked like it was a part of her arm and not a piece of clothing. She even wore a black corset with silver felt like she was in a dream, she never thought that something like this would ever happen to her.

Pitch held out a hand to help her up, and Ember took it. It suddenly hit her that Pitch was now technically her father; she was the daughter of the nightmare king. She could now even make one of her old dreams come true, she could create and control dreams. Excitement filled her as she began to realize this. She quickly sized up her surrounding; it looked to be a cave where an old castle had been sunken into the ground. Random flight of stairs and old crumbling parts of the building stuck out of the ground and walls of the cave, giving the feeling of discord. There were fearlings hiding everywhere in the shadows of the cave, making the gut wrenching screeching sound. Next to Ember was Pitch's globe, tiny lights shone brightly across the face of almost every continent.

Ember brushed off the dirt on her dress and paced around the globe, staring thoughtfully at each light. From each light she looked at she could hear the dreams of each one, some of them happy and some repulsing making her cringe. She remembered being one of the glowing lights, wondering if she was still one of them. But she wasn't sure if being with Pitch had changed anything.

Meanwhile Pitch watched her pace around the globe, reading her every expression. He knew that she would make a fine daughter when it came down to it, but she needed to be trained. Pitch was also concerned about how the Guardians might act when they found out about Ember, surely they would try to fight. But he wasn't completely sure. He walked over to join Ember, sizing her up as he went.

"I can hear there dreams..." Ember didn't truly realize she was talking, she meant for it to be more of a thought than anything. But she ignored it and continued to stare at the light.

"Naturally. Just like the fearlings, you can hear anyone's dreams. You can hear a dream from across the world if you tried hard enough." Pitch turned his gaze to the light, there numbers had grew in the past year. He would be needing Ember's help to get them back down again.

"When will I start to learn how to control their dreams?" Ember tried to nonchalant about it, but inside she was bursting with excitement. She wanted to learn how to make nightmares, and to learn how to shadow travel. Words couldn't describe how eager she was to start learning. However Pitch saw right through Ember, her eyes gave it away. Just like Pitch, her eyes grew golden when they thought of power, when they felt in control, or even just thought of something evil. Her eyes grew a mixed color of silver and gold as she glanced up at Pitch. Pitch merely grinned.

"Darling, we can start this very moment if your so eager." Pitch grinned, he never realized Ember would be so eager to learn. Ember's eyes shown ever brighter at his answer. She returned a grin and nodded her head. "Very well, your first lesson will be shadow travel." Pitch's eyes started to turn gold just as Ember's, he finally had someone. He was no longer alone.

_~Chapter 2~_

"I don't expect you to learn how to travel flawlessly your first time, so hang onto me." The second Ember grabbed on to Pitch she felt her entire body fade into the shadows. They moved so fast she thought her skin would fly off, but somehow she still kept a grip on Pitch. Not even a second later they landed on top of a roof about 20 stories up. Ember stumbled as soon as her feet hit the ground, flying forward. But Pitch grabbed her arm and steadied her, making sure that she didn't fall off the side of the building.

Embers heart raced as she re-gained her footing, that was probably one of the most exciting things she had ever done. She looked around to see where she was, but it was too dark to make anything out. Her best guess was a big city, but she wasn't completely sure.

"Not bad for your first time, I was expecting you would get lost in the shadows." Ember rolled her eyes and laughed a little. _I just might surprise you old man_, Ember thought to herself. She ignored Pitch's little comment and wanted to move on to the next thing.

"So, whats next?" Ember asked, trying not to sound to excited. But Pitch could tell by the gold that seemed to fill her eyes. He allowed a little grin to show, and turned facing the shadows. He outstretched his hand, acting as if he was trying to summon something. A black stream of sand came out of the shadows, and swirled around his hand.

"Nightmare sand. Just like the Sand mans's dream sand, except it brings nightmares instead." Suddenly with the flick of his wrist the sand formed a deadly looking horse, it snorted angrily and trotted around in circles. "Try." Pitch nodded to Ember, signaling her to try and create something with the nightmare sand.

Ember wasn't completely sure how to create the sand, but she followed Pitch's steps. She reached out towards the shadows and thought of the nightmare sand, she thought of evil things. Suddenly she felt something inside her move, and the nightmare sand where flying to her finger tips. Excitement jumped inside her, along with something dark. Next she needed to form something with it. _Dragons_, that was the first thing that popped into her mind. So Ember focused on forming the sand into the image of a dragon, and as she did a dragon about the size of herself came together. The dragon itself looked like it had come out of a horror movie, with sharp pointed wings and a tail that could kill someone. Ember thought it looked adorable, she had always admired dragons. But she thought she had out done herself on this. It roared and sneered, it's eyes where glowing yellow and they were focused on Ember.

Pitch smirked as he walked around the dragon, after about a minute of looking the dragon up and down he let out a little laugh. He never thought Ember would do so good on her first try. "Simply terrifying, well done Ember." The dragon snapped at Pitch's hand as he tried to pet it. Pitch merely laughed and started to grin. "Not bad for your first time, i'm starting to think you could be a natural at this."

Ember grinned back at Pitch, "You'd be surprised at what im capable of." The truth was, Ember was even surprised at what she could do.

Pitch turned away from the dragon and back to Ember, he looked at her thoughtfully. Ember almost wanted to shrink back into the shadows the way he was looking at her, though he was technically her father she was still scared a little scared of him. After another minute of the scrutinizing looks, Pitch finally spoke.

"Perhaps it's time I taught you how to give a nightmare." Pitch watched Ember's eyes light up. Ember grinned and nodded her head in agreement. "Then come along." Ember held on to Pitch again and they disappeared into the shadows. Not even a second later Ember found herself standing in a tiny pink bedroom with band posters plastered to the wall. A crown shaped nightlight was plugged into the wall to illuminate the room, casting shadows everywhere.

Ember landed perfectly this time, but almost tripped over her own feet. She tried her best to keep a laugh from escaping her, and turned to see what Pitch's instructions were. Pitch was standing tall over what seemed to be a little girl, probably about ten years of age at the most. She had a golden unicorn prancing above her, it was dream sand. Sanderson Mansnoozie had already been through this town, so it was the best opportunity to create a nightmare. Ember walked over stood beside Pitch, wondering what he would do next.

"Ha ha, unicorns. How typical." Pitch looked malicious as he spoke, making Ember almost cower. Pitch silently laughed as he poked his index finger through the unicorns stomach, a smirk appearing across his face. The unicorn crumpled, and slowly manifested into one of Pitch's nightmares. The little girl shifted uneasily in her bed, and tears streaked down across her face staining the pillow beneath her. It made Ember remember how she used to wake up screaming and crying from nightmares. "Know, it's your turn." Pitch turned to Ember and roughly grabbed her shoulder disturbing her thoughts, Ember was barley able to stifle a cry of pain. Then they disappeared into the shadows once more, and wound up in another bedroom.

This time the room was almost a shade of sky blue, with grass paintings at the bottom of the walls. In fact the walls seemed to be painted to look like a jungle. Ember looked down at the sleeping child as soon as Pitch let go of her. It seemed to a young boy, no more than eight years of age. He had dream sand above his head as well, except it was in the shape of a dinosaur. _Of course its a dinosaur_, Ember thought as she rolled her eyes. She remembered how Pitch had simply tainted the dream, and wondered if it was truly that easy.

Pitch watched with thirsty eyes as Ember tainted the dream. As soon as Ember had tainted it, she felt a darkness inside her stir. She smiled as the dinosaur crumpled and turned into a blood thirsty T-Rex, she rolled her eyes. _What a foolish fear to have, _Ember thought. Ember had never really liked kids, she never knew how to handle them or how to react. This was much easier, making them cry instead of trying to comfort them. The darkness she felt inside her almost wanted to make her laugh, bust she just smiled instead.

The kid screamed and started to move frantically, tears rolling down his eyes and soaking his pillow. It made Ember jump at the sudden scream, and she backed into Pitch. Pitch merely chuckled and put both hands on her shoulders. They disappeared back into the shadows, and wound up back on the same roof as when they had started.

Pitch laughed and picked up Ember and spun her around. "You are a natural my dear! You have great things ahead of you if you keep it up." Pitch proclaimed as he set Ember back down, Ember laughed as she stumbled to regain her balance. The adrenaline coursed through her vanes, she was surprised at how well she had done. Gold shown in both their eyes, making them look almost like animals. "Know, I leave you here. You may do as you wish, practice, explore your powers, do as you wish. But I give you one word of advice. If you run into a Guardian, don't stick around. When you feel tired of practicing, come back to the lair. I'll be waiting." With that Pitch lightly touched Ember's face and smiled. He then dissolved back into the shadows and left Ember alone.

Ember wasn't exactly sure what to do with herself, so she took Pitch's advice and started to practice.

_~Chapter 3~_

Ember shadow traveled by herself for the first time since she had become Pitch's daughter. She traveled into hundreds of different bedrooms around the world, spreading fear a giving people nightmares. Ember even learned how to manipulate the shadows, making them cast into different shapes and scaring the people who saw them. Ember thoroughly enjoyed scaring people, some even passed out making Ember laugh so hard her ribs hurt.

But soon Ember grew tired of traveling from room to room, so she found a frozen lake in the woods and relaxed in a tree. Ember summoned the nightmare sand and created a dozen tiny dragons and sent them off to give nightmares for her. She then created her regular dragon for company. She hated being alone know, she had been alone all her life and grew tired of it. The dragon curled up in the branch next to Embers head and playfully nudged her. Ember laughed and laid a hand on the dragons head, gently scratching behind one of it's ears.

Ember laid her head back and stared up at the star covered sky, the moon cascading light on the forest floor. It suddenly dawned on Ember that she used to talk to the moon, and how it was her only true friend. She wondered if that still remained true considering Pitch was his enemy, and she was now Pitch's daughter. She wanted to ask Tislar, but right as she was about to something caught her attention. Gold streams of sand started to cover the sky and head toward the town that was close to the frozen lake.

Ember recognized it as Sanderson Mansnoozie's dream sand, and knew that he was close. Curiosity took a hold of Ember and she hoped onto the dragons back and disappeared into the shadows.

Ember came back out on top of a building in the town and saw the dream sand flowing into the ones with sleeping people in it. Ember hoped off her dragon and stood on the roofs edge as a stream of golden sand passed her. It gracefully twirled around her, surrounding her with golden light. Ember reached out to touch it, but as soon as she did the strand turned black. Disappointment filled Ember, and something dark stirred inside her. Ember sighed and sent it off to a room with two sleeping children.

But Ember was to busy staring at the streams of sand to notice that someone was behind her. It was Sandy, he had felt the presence of fear and thought it was Pitch. He had his sand whips at the ready, and whipped one around Embers right hand. He yanked his whip back ruffly and sent Ember flying towards him. Ember let out a tiny shriek at the sudden movement, confused as to what was going on. She had been yanked to the ground and was looking Sandy straight in the face.

Sandy's face went from rage to perplexity in less than a second. It clearly wasn't Pitch, but a teenage girl. Sandy was bewildered. 'W_hy does this girl resemble Pitch so much' , _Sandy thought as he let the dream whips dissolve out of his hands freeing Ember.

Ember frantically scooted away from Sandy and tried to stand up. She didn't recognize Sandy at first, but after a moment she remembered who he was. Ember remembered reading about the great Sandman, Guardian of dreams. She was very fond of Sandy, and relaxed a little as she remembered who he was.

Sandy gave Ember another puzzled look, and then moved forward and offered her a helping hand. He gave Ember an apologetic look as Ember cautiously took his hand and allowed him to help her up. Once Ember was back on her feet she brushed the gravel from her dress and regained her footing.

"Thank you" Ember said nodding to the tiny man. Sandy bowed as a sign of respect and to show his apologies. It then hit Ember that Sandy was in fact a Guardian, and Pitch had warned her not to go around the Guardians. With a little hesitation Ember smiled at Sandy and quickly shrunk into the shadows before Sandy could stop her.

Ember left Sandy wondering who she was, and why she reminded him of Pitch. An idea struck Sandy that sent shivers down his spine, '_Could Pitch have blackened her soul?' _The thought almost scared Sandy, he had to keep an eye on this strange girl and hope that he was wrong. With that Sandy went on with his night and sent sweet dreams to all the people in the town.

* * *

Meanwhile Ember traveled back to Pitch's lair, deciding that it would probably be better not to tell Pitch about her encounter with Sandy. She came to find that the lair was empty, not a fearling in sight. Ember let out a sigh of relief. She absolutely hated the fearlings, there screeches and the ghastly way they moved made Ember cringe just thinking about it. However, Ember wondered where Pitch was. She missed him and felt lonely without him there, but she was used to the lonely feeling. Ember guessed that Pitch was probably out finishing up some work, so she shrugged and went on to pace around the globe in the center of the cave.

As she looked at the lights she heard there dreams. Some of them were having nightmares, and recognized some of them as the ones she had caused. Others she guessed Pitch or one of the fearlings had caused. Ember was surprised though at how many lights there were though, she never thought that that many people believed in the Guardians. Ember knew Pitch would need help to get the lights back down, but how would they do that?

Ember started to devise a plan on how to take down the Guardians. She remembered reading about some of Pitch's old attempts, they had always seemed like they would work but he always seemed to fail. Pitch never seemed to take certain things into consideration, and he always assumed that he had taken them down letting down his guard. Ember ran through some of Pitch's weaknesses and what he could do better. After a moment she had a short list of things that Pitch could do differently that would ensure his success. Ember was so deep in thought that she did not hear Pitch arrive.

"Ah, your back." Pitch said as he placed a hand on Embers shoulders. Ember's thoughts where scattered and she gasped and jumped back in surprise.

"Give me a heart attack will ya!" Ember gasped as she tried to regain her composure.

"Ha ha, a little jumpy aren't we?" Pitch raised an eyebrow in question.

"Well you did just come out of nowhere and scare the crap out of me." Ember retorted as moved back to stand in front of him again. Pitch smirked and shook his head.

"Did you get any practice in?" Pitch asked as he starts to pace around the globe.

"Yes, it's becoming easier." Ember watches Pitch circle the globe and come back to face her.

"Any problems?" Ember remembered her encounter with Sandy, but she had decided it would be better not to tell him. Ember shook her head, hoping that Pitch couldn't read her mind.

Pitch looked at her curiously for a moment, trying to see if she was hiding anything. Luckily Pitch didn't notice she was lying. "Good." Pitch looked at Ember one more time before he returned back to the globe.

Ember released a breathe she didn't know she was holding, and went back to planning.

_~Chapter 4~ _

"No... no you can't." Ember stuttered as she tried to back away from Pitch, but her feet wouldn't allow her to move. Pitch towered over Ember, and enraged look carved into his face. He glared at Ember, sending chills down her back.

"You are pathetic Ember. A _disgrace_ to me and your family, you will never be anything more than a silly _little_ girl. No wonder no one had anything to do with you." Pitch sneered. Pitch's words hit Ember like a slap to the face, she felt like she had just been stabbed in the heart.

Pitch turned on his heel and strode away from Ember, and as he did every fearling that had darkened Embers soul came surging out of her. Ember screamed and dropped to her knees, to weak to stand any longer. Tears started to stream down her face, wetting her cheeks.

"Please, don't leave me." Ember cried as she held out a hand to try to grab Pitch, but he was to far away. She watched him with blurry eyes disappear into the shadows, she felt the tug of loneliness deep in her heart.

Fearlings started to surround Ember, causing fear to race through her. They got closer and closer until Ember felt beyond trapped. The fearlings were going to kill her and she could do nothing to stop it. Ember felt helpless, powerless, _she couldn't escape_. Ember felt the fearlings hands close around her, tugging at her and scratching her. Pain shot through every inch of her body and she screamed out, but no one could save her now. With one last screech of the fearlings, Ember was murdered.

* * *

Ember woke up screaming and crying, her entire body was shaking to the bone and ached with the pain of fear. She tried to sit up but her arms were to weak to support her. Fearlings screeched around her, making her scream through gritted teeth. Suddenly they all dispersed, Ember looked up to see Pitch with a perplexed look on his face. There was a trace of concern that crossed Pitch's face as he looked down and saw Ember shaking and crying.

"What's wrong sweetie?" Pitch asked in a soothing voice, trying to console Ember. Ember looked back up at him through blurry eyes, the nightmare re playing in her head. As soon as Pitch had knelled down beside Ember to match her height she grabbed him tightly as if he would slip through her fingers. She buried her head into his chest and started to sob. It startled Pitch, he wasn't sure how to react.

"Please! Don't leave me!" Ember chocked as her sobs came out uncontrollable. Pitch was still startled, but tried to handle the situation accordingly. He shifted so that he was sitting next to Ember on the stone slab she used for a bed.

"Ha ha, the fearlings must have gotten to you." Pitch sounded pleased by this as he lifted Ember into his lap. He pulled her away from him and lifted her chin so she was looking at him. "Ember, I promise I will never leave you." Ember could tell Pitch was being sincere, however she thought it was a bit odd since Pitch had never tried to be comforting before. But Ember pushed it to the back of her mind and buried her head back into Pitch's chest, taking advantage of his kindness while she could. Pitch wrapped her closer to him, stroking her hair as she continued to sob.

Pitch was cold, colder than death. But to Ember he was the warmest and safest thing on earth. Ember refused to let go of Pitch, her nightmare really made her realize that she wouldn't be able to survive without Pitch and she was scared to let him slip away. Ember hated that she couldn't keep from sobbing though, she hated crying. To her crying made her feel weak and little again, but crying around Pitch was even worse. She felt that she would never be able to live up to her title as Pitch's daughter. But thankfully she soon ran out of tears and felt a bit better.

Soon Ember's breaths became slow and normal, and she had finally stopped shaking and her eyes were dry. Pitch watched her fall asleep and remembered how he had used to comfort Emily Jane when she had a nightmare. A sharp pain went through Pitch at the thought of Emily, so he pushed it to the back of his mind and focused on Embers slow breaths. Pitch loved Ember like his own child, and even though it had only been a couple months that Ember had been with him he felt like he could never let her go. He never felt alone, he almost felt _happy. _A feeling he had never really experienced before, and he wasn't sure he liked it all the time, but he came to grow fond of this _happy _feeling.

Pitch was also exceptionally proud of Ember, she was practically a devil in a seventeen year old body. She had grown talented at tormenting kids and nearly giving adults heart attacks, her nightmares had become feared among anyone who had the displeasure of experiencing one. Ember had even frightened Pitch once or twice, though he would never admit it. Pitch was proud of how she was turning out.

But one thing did bug him. There seemed to be a glimmer of light left in her, she was to kind in ways. It made Pitch wonder if the fearlings hadn't completely blackened her soul. Pitch decided to keep a better eye on Ember and make sure the light didn't grow stronger inside her. He had great plans for her, and he wasn't about to loose her to the kindness left in her soul.

As Pitch thought about this he tried to pry the sleeping child from his chest, she had still managed to keep a firm grasp on him when she fell asleep. Pitch had to pry her fingers apart so that she would let go of him. After a short struggle he was able to get Ember to let go of him, and lay her back down on the slab of stone she slept on. He brushed a couple stray hairs out of her face and stood up, his chest was still a little wet from her tears. He loved how peaceful Ember looked when she slept, it took everything in him not to give Ember a nightmare just to see the terrified look on her face once more.

It then struck Pitch that he wanted to see what Ember's nightmare was about. He called to one of his fearlings, and they showed him the nightmare. He was pleased at how terrifying it had been, but he was also irked that a fearling had tortured his daughter. As the dream went on he saw how he had left Ember to die at the hands of the fearlings, and he realized something that scared him. He had a new fear, and that fear was losing Ember. It annoyed him that he could be affected by such a little thing, but he could not forget Embers screams as she died.

After a minute Pitch snapped back into reality and noticed that the fearlings were trying to surround Ember again. He glared at them in such a way that terrified them back into the shadows of the cave.

"Touch her, and I swear to the moon above I will cut of your heads." Pitch snarled to the fearlings and they recoiled even further into the shadows. That was all he needed to say, the fearlings knew not to cross Pitch and left Ember alone. Pitch looked back down at Ember one more time, and went back to his work.

_~Chapter 5~_

Ember woke up right at dusk feeling a little disoriented. Her head was pounding from last nights events. The nightmare came flooding back to Ember, making her start to shake a little from the fear that flowed through her. But then she remembered how Pitch had comforted her, and how he allowed her to fall asleep in his arms. Out of the three months she had been there, Pitch had never been so kind and comforting to her. It made Ember smile and a new energy flowed into her.

She then realized that Pitch and the fearlings were no where to be found, so Ember assumed that he was off on his rounds again. She didn't feel like staying cooped up in the cave alone so she brushed of her dress and disappeared into the shadows.

Ember walked out of the shadows of the woods and came to her favorite place to think, the frozen lake by the village. She created some of the dragons and sent them to spread fear across the nearby villages. As they flew away Ember hoped into the big oak tree by the lake and instantly started to think about how she could destroy the Guardians.

Ember knew that she needed to catch them off guard so they wouldn't be able to fight back, she needed to somehow gain their trust. If she gained their trust then they will think that Ember could do no wrong, and wouldn't dare try to destroy them. But she needed to find a way to gain their trust without betraying Pitch, she would need to tell him eventually.

Nicholas St. North and E. Aster Bunnymund seemed like the easiest to take down to Ember. All she had to do was destroy Norths Christmas toys and Bunnymunds Easter eggs so they wouldn't be able to give anything to the children of the world. They would no longer be believed in if the kids didn't get what they wanted. It was to easy, so Ember decided they would be the last to go.

Jackson Overland Frost was a nuisance to Pitch, he always seemed to get in the way. But he had no real way of bringing hope and wonder back to children, so he wasn't to much of a threat. He could be easily taken down by stealing and breaking his staff, his staff was his source of power and without it Jack was nothing more than a teenage boy. So all Ember had to do was figure out how to steal the staff from him. He had been tricked once by Pitch, but he certainly wouldn't fall for it again.

Toothina was easy enough. All Ember had to do was steal the teeth and her fairy's. Her fairy's so they couldn't go and collect the teeth, and the teeth so that Ember could blacken the memory's that were inside them. She knew it would work. She had read about Pitch doing the same thing, stealing the fairy's and blackening the teeth's memory's. His plan would have worked, but the Guardians got in his way. Ember would make sure that never happened again.

The last one left was Sandy, but he would be the hardest one to take down. He would also be the one to take down first since he could re kindle the light in kids through a simple dream. Sandy used dream sand, just like Pitch. Except Sandy's version of dream sand was to give good dreams, not nightmares. So all Ember had to do was taint his dream sand. But it is not as easy as it sounds. All Sandy had to do was create more dream sand and take down Pitch, thus making his nightmares into good dreams. But a thought occurred to Ember, what if she could learn how to manipulate Sandy's dream sand? Then Sandy couldn't fight back, and Ember would be able to manipulate Sandy. It was perfect, but she needed to find a way for Sandy to teach her. Sandy and Ember already knew each other from their run in a couple months ago, so maybe if Ember asked he might agree to it. She would have to find out the next chance she got.

Ember grew excited. Her plan was bound to work, but she had to find the time to tell Pitch. He was busy lately due to the increasing number of lights on the globe. Ember knew she had to act soon.

* * *

While Ember was busy planning how to take down the Guardians he nightmares were at work frightening the villagers. But no one seemed to notice that it had started to snow. Windows gathered frost on them, power lines froze, and even the town center water fountain froze. The roads began to ice, causing wrecks and panicked people rushed to the store to gather food for the oncoming blizzard.

Only Jack Frost himself could cause this much havoc in one night. Jack Frost had returned to his favorite village on Earth, Burgess. It was his original home village he lived in before he became a Guardian. He always loved to re visit it and play with the children of the village who believed in him.

But he was not here to play with the children this time. He felt that something wasn't right in the town and wanted to find out what it was. As he passed the bedrooms of sleeping children and adults he noticed some of them were having nightmares. Jack knew only one person who could be behind this, Pitch. So Jack started to search for Pitch, keeping his guard up.

Suddenly something flew across Jack, making him stop dead in his tracks. It was to fast for Jack to make out, but he knew what it was. So he instantly started chasing it, seeing if it would lead him to Pitch. As Jack got closer to the nightmare he realized it wasn't the usual horse that Pitch used to spread nightmares, but a dragon. This puzzled Jack, but he had to keep on their trail so he could find Pitch. Soon more dragons joined the one Jack was chasing, and they started to head to the lake were Jack and his sister used to go ice skating.

Before the nightmares got to the lakes edge they transformed into one big dragon, making Jack almost jump back. Jack watched at the lakes edge as the dragon swooped down and pulled a girl out of an old oak tree on the other side of the lake. Jack instantly hid behind one of the trees at the lakes edge. Jack was stunned, he was expecting to find Pitch but instead found a young beautiful girl. In fact she looked almost like Pitch. Jack was confused, he had never seen this girl before, and why did she look like pitch most of all? Jack had to find out, so he gathered up his courage and flew out to see who the women was.

* * *

Ember was startled when her dragon swooped her out of her tree. The dragon seemed urgent, like something was wrong. Ember could tell something wasn't right. The dragon put her down in the middle of the frozen lake and Ember tried to calm it down.

As soon as the dragon was calm Ember realized that it was starting to snow. She absolutely loved the snow, she used to play in it by herself when she was younger. She smiled as it covered her, almost turning her dress white instead of black. Suddenly there was a sudden blast of icy wind and she was blinded by snow twirling around her. Once it settled back down she felt someone beside her.

Ember jumped a little as she looked over and saw none other than Jack Frost, the Guardian of fun. Jack was pointing his staff at Ember, sizing her up. Ember almost couldn't believe her eyes, she had admired Jack for so long as a child. She never thought she would get to meet him, He still wore his old blue hoodie that was covered in frost, along with his skin tight pants that were bound in leather at the ankles. His white hair almost glowed in the night sky, frost covered almost every inch of it making it glint in the moonlight. His blue eyes shown as he continued to look Ember up and down. Ember was almost attracted to him.

"Who are you?" Jack finally asked, keeping his staff level.

Ember hesitated, she wasn't supposed to be communicating with the Guardians. But then she reminded herself of her plan. "I'm Ember, Ember Black." Ember smiled as she replied.

Jack looked stunned, he even lowered his staff a bit in surprise. "No... no that's not possible. Pitch doesn't have a daughter. Unless..." Jacks face turned from confusion to horrified. "Unless he blackened you soul."

Ember looked down as she remembered watching her parents die, and the pain of her soul being tainted. It made Ember want to fall down and cry, but she pushed the tears back and stood still.

Jack almost seemed to become furious at the thought. "How dare he taint an innocent child's soul!" Jack fumed as he lowered his staff and ran a hand through his hair, he knew this wasn't good.

"I'm seventeen thank you." Ember glared at Jack, she was getting tired of being called a child. Jack seemed to recoil at Embers glare and tried to utter an apology. "And besides, I chose to be with Pitch. So don't get all worked up."

"What? Why would you ever choose to be with _him_?" Jack looked bewildered, he didn't understand why anyone would ever want to be with such a _vile_ man. Ember stopped glaring at Jack and felt a stab of pain run through her heart as she remembered her parents again.

"Because... He's the only one that has ever been there for me, he's all I have left." Embers voice wavered a little, it was true. Pitch really was the only person there for her, beside the man in the moon. But Pitch had saved her life, he offered her a family when she had none. He was the only thing Ember had left. She was forever in his debt.

Jack realized he had brought up something that he shouldn't of had and quickly tried to change the subject. He would rather see Ember glare at him than to see her almost burst into tears, which is hard to say since her glare terrified him.

"Well I don't know what happened, but i'm sorry." Jack hesitated for a second. "I-I'm Jack Frost by the way." Jack ran a nervous hand through his hair again. Ember managed a smile.

"Yes, a I know" Ember grinned as she rocked back and forth on her heel's, making her dress sway across the ice.

"Really? How?" Jack asked leaning on his staff, he couldn't help but grin.

"I've believed in you and the other Guardians since I was a kid. I used to read a lot about you and the Guardians when I was a child."

"Y-You believed in me? Wait. There are _books_ about me?" Jack exclaimed perking up.

"Ha ha, should I catch you up on reality?" Ember knew this could be the perfect chance to become friends with jack, gaining his trust.

"I'd like that" Jack beamed.

So Ember caught Jack up on everything he had missed and what was going on in the past three-hundred years. How technology had become a major thing and things had become much easier for the human race. Ember even told him how he and the Guardians had become somewhat popular and that a lot of people believed in him.

As the conversation grew they ended up sharing past life story's and random knowledge. Somehow they even ended up challenging each other who could make the best design in the air with their magic. They both won since they could both create anything they wanted to, from dragons to waterfalls. By the time the first ray of sunlight came out from the horizon Ember and Jack had become friends. Ember's plane was working accordingly.

Ember and Jack where walking in the woods when the first ray of sun hit Ember. It the dawned on Ember that she was supposed to be back at the cave by know and almost panicked. How would she explain all this to Pitch? Ember summoned her dragon and hopped on its back.

"I'm sorry Jack, but I need to go. Pitch will be wondering where I am."

"Wait! When will I see you again." Jack asked before Ember had the chance to disappear. Ember looked back and and smiled.

"You can usually find me by the oak tree if your lucky." Ember called as she disappeared into the shadows, leaving Jack to think about Ember.

* * *

As Ember made her way back to Pitch's lair she stopped to give a couple nightmares and even play with the minds of the people who were awake. It was becoming easy to scare the wits out of anyone she passed, all she had to do was cast a shadow or make a strange noise to make them recoil in fear. She even went as far to hide under the beds of sleeping children and grab their legs when they were hanging off the beds. It was probably the scariest thing to do to anyone, they would shriek and tug their legs back hiding under their blankets. Screaming for their parents, or just for help. Ember couldn't help but laugh and cast a shadow to make them think someone was their intensifying their screams.

It took Ember almost an hour to get back to the lair, she was grinning from ear to ear when she walked out of the shadows to find Pitch hard at work ordering the fearlings around and pacing around the globe. She walked up and joined Pitch, but tried not to get too near a fearling. It was almost odd that Ember was afraid of fearlings, because she had them embedded in her soul.

Pitch almost seemed to jump when Ember suddenly appeared at his side. Ember tried her best to conceal a tiny smirk at his jumpiness. Pitch ordered a couple other fearlings to go to a city Ember had never heard of before and finally turned his attention over to Ember. Ember was just about to tell Pitch about her plan, but he cut her off before she had the chance.

"I see you have been improving upon your nightmares, you were able to make some of the lights become dim." Pitch motioned to the globe. Ember was surprised, she never thought that one little nightmare could make a kid doubt the existence of the Guardians. Fear really was a powerful thing. "You are turning into a portentous daughter." Pitch came to stand in front of Ember, towering over her.

"I-I guess, I've been trying to learn as much as possible." Ember stammered, she wasn't used to compliments.

Pitch grabbed her chin and made her look up at him. His long fingers were cold as ice, almost making Ember shiver. Ember looked up into his eyes, they were silver with a glimmer of gold. It made Ember shudder with fear, she couldn't help but be a little scared of him. Even though Ember thought of him as her father and loved him like one, he still had a threatening feeling to him that made Ember want to recoil into the shadows.

Pitch smirked at her shudder, he could tell she was scared of him. For good reason to. Pitch stared at Ember for a little longer, making Ember feel like he was reading her mind.

"Have you run into any trouble yet?" Pitch asked as he let go of Ember, letting her chin drop. Ember shuddered again at the feeling of his fingers slide off her chin, making her blood run cold.

Ember knew she should tell him about her plan, but she couldn't seem to form the words. So she just shook her head, she would tell him later. Ember prayed he couldn't see right through her.

But Pitch smiled and turned away from her. "Good."

Curiosity bubbled inside Ember, why was it so bad if she did run into the Guardians? she couldn't help herself. "Why? Is it bad if I do?" Ember tried to make her question seem nonchalant, but inside curiosity was seeping out of her. Pitch turned back to her and narrowed his eyes, making Ember take a tiny step backward.

"Not necessarily, the Guardians wouldn't try to hurt you unless you provoke them. But it would make them curious as to who you are, and once they find out they will try and destroy you. They could try to kill you, or even worse trap you in the shadows like they did me for so long." Pitch sneered at the thought of the Guardians. He loathed them for trapping him in the dark, making kids no longer believe in his existence. A scowl appeared over his face, clenching his hands into fists. The thought of the Guardians trying to trap Ember mad her almost mad, she would be damned if she let them get away with such a thing.

"I'd like to see them try." Ember growled, she did not mean to growl but she couldn't help herself. Pitch smirked at Ember's rage, he knew Ember would put up an interesting fight. But he would never allow such a thing to happen to Ember, he would not allow the Guardians to take her away from him.

They exchanged smirks and went back to work, ordering the fearlings around. Pitch even allowed Ember to have a tiny army of fearlings to send out and order around. Ember was finally in control of fearlings, she felt empowered. Things were working out nicely for a change.

_~Chapter 6~_

Almost a week had passed since Ember had ran into Jack. She was trying to stay far away from the Guardians for a while so she didn't arouse any suspicion, and it was working. Pitch suspected nothing, he thought Ember was just making her usual rounds without any problems. For a while it was true, Ember had no problems making her rounds and spreading fear.

But today Ember did run into a problem. She was making her usual rounds, trying to stay away from the village of Burgess so she didn't run into Jack. She was just finishing up spreading fear to a tiny village and was growing a bit tired. So she shadow traveled to the roof of a building over looking the village and played with her dragons, sending them to do her bidding for her.

Ember didn't really notice the streams of dream sand start to float down to the village until she felt a presence behind her. Ember jumped to her feet and was about to disappear into the shadows when she remembered her plan. She had to learn how to control Sandy's dream sand so that he couldn't fight back, so she put on a bright smile and made her move.

Ember smiled gleefully at Sandy and waved at him. Sandy returned the bright smile and bowed to Ember, his fluffy hair scraping the ground as he did. Sandy didn't need words to exchange greetings with Ember, his facial expressions were enough to make anyone feel welcome around him.

Streams of dream sand started to swirl past them, heading down to the building below to give the sleeping children pleasant dreams. They illuminated the building with golden light, making the shadows dance around them. One danced and swirled past Ember, illuminating her figure making her look more solid than shadowy. Ember had always loved the dream sand, she loved the how it contained the most magical properties and how it danced across the sky's at night. She had always wanted to learn how to wield such magic, even before her plan.

Ember laughed and reached out to touch the golden stream that danced around her. But when she touched it the stream became tainted black. Ember gasped and moved back a little, she had forgotten that she could taint the sand by touching it. Sorrow filled her and doubt flooded her mind, she would probably never be able to wield a pure magic.

Sandy looked confused, 'Why would she be sad about tainting the sand?' Sandy thought to himself as he approached Ember, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. Ember had dropped to her knees, staring blankly at her hands. Sandy suddenly realized that maybe Ember didn't want to be evil, that she wanted to be pure of heart and bring gleeful dreams. Sandy shuddered, if that was the case then Pitch had forced her to be with him.

"Sandy... Do you think I will ever be able to conjure a pure dream?" Ember asked looking up at Sandy. It took Sandy a moment to reply, he didn't know if it was truly possible for Ember to make something pure since she had been tainted. But Sandy just smiled and nodded. If Ember had even the slightest bit of light left in her, then she would most likely be able to make something pure.

Ember's eyes light up, hope flooding back to her. "Really? But how?" Ember asked excitedly, she was eager to learn how to create a pure dream. Sandy pondered the question for a minute, but light up when he came up with an idea that might work.

"Find the light inside your soul. Dig deep down past the darkness, and just like with the nightmare sand push it out of your fingertips and create a dream. It might not work at first, but keep trying!" Sandy said writing the letters out in his dream sand.

It took a moment for Ember to read the letters, but light up once she did. She knew exactly what to do. She stood back up and brushed off her dress, trying to dig deep inside her. Darkness seemed to be all Ember could find, she pushed through layers and layers of darkness till she finally found a glimmer of light in her. It was tiny, but glowed strong. The fearlings had not completely tainted her soul!

Ember let the light fill her, and just like the darkness she let it flow out of her. She tried conjuring the light into a dream, pushing it out of her like Sandy had instructed her to do. A small stream of sand appeared out of Ember's hands, but to her disappointment it was not wholly pure. Faint streams of gold mixed with the nightmare sand as it flew into a stream dancing around Ember.

Sandy clapped, ecstatic that Ember had not been fully tainted. "Try again!" Sandy wrote, his eyes glowing with excitement. Ember smiled and nodded.

Ember dug deep down again to where the light shown and let it fill her. She let it flow out of her into a stream of sand. This time the stream of sand was mostly gold with tiny streams of black coursing threw it. Sandy jumped up and down clapping, impressed at how fast Ember had advanced on her second try. Ember smiled, letting her teeth show. She was able to conjure a slightly pure dream, it was a step forward.

Ember was so excited that she picked up Sandy and hugged him. "Thank you Sandy! Oh my gosh, thank you soo much!" Ember kissed Sandy on the cheek and set him down. Sandy blushed and bowed again to Ember, happy that he could help Ember.

The rest of that night Ember practiced with Sandy, getting better each time she tried. Sandy was proud of Ember's efforts and had hope for her, maybe her soul was able to become pure again. Sandy gave Ember some pointers on her technique, and how to give a dream. They bonded as the night went on, Ember's plan was going smoothly.

When the sun began to rise Ember and Sandy parted. Sandy had to go distribute dreams to the rest of the world who where still asleep and ember had to return to the cave so Pitch didn't become suspicious again. They waved goodbye and departed. Ember disappeared into the shadows and traveled back to the cave.

Pitch was not there when Ember got there, so she decided to go lye down and sleep for a moment. As soon as she laid her head down she drifted off to the dream world.

_~Chapter 7~_

Ember was traveling from city to city making her usual rounds, distributing fear and frightening children. But she was also practicing using the pure dream sand, giving sweet dreams and happiness to sleeping children and adults. Sometimes she would even mix the two, creating a happy dream that ended badly or a bad dream that had a happy ending. The happy to bad dreams seemed even more torturing to people than just a straight up nightmare, crushing any hopes and replacing it with fear. It was truly evil, and even scaring for some. But mixing the two types of dreams took a little extra effort out of Ember, so she decided after giving another nightmare to go rest by the frozen lake in Burgess.

Right as she walked out of the shadows of the woods she was pelted by a snow ball, sending her face first into the fluffy snow beneath her. Laughing filled the air around her and she hid a smile under the snow. It was Jack Frost, and he seemed to be in a playful mood.

"Long time no see Ember." Jack chimed as Ember lifted her face out of the snow, meeting Jack's bright blue eyes. Ember smiled and laughed, working herself back to her feet and brushing off the snow from her dress.

"Your right, it's been a while." Ember smiled. It had been several weeks since she had last saw him, she missed having a cheerful conversation.

"care to join me for a walk?" Jack asked, leaning on his staff with a mischievous grin on his face. Ember returned the mischievous grin and started to walk the lakes edge with Jack.

The moon shown bright threw the cloudy night sky as Jack and Ember caught up, sharing laughs and many story's. But there was something that Jack had been dying to ask Ember for a while, and it was starting to eat him alive. So he waited for until there was a silence and asked Ember.

"I'm sorry Ember but I've got to ask... Did Pitch force you to become his daughter?" Jack quickly asked, brushing a hand threw his hair. Ember stopped walking instantly. "I don't mean to bring up any bad memory's, but I've just gotta know."

Ember remembered a blurry image of her parents death, and how Pitch stopped the fearlings from killing her as well. How Pitch had offered Ember a family when he could have easily left her to die like anyone else would have.

"No." Ember mused, looking up at the blurry moon. She remembered how the moon had been clear on the night of her parents death. _'Why didn't he help my parents... why didn't he help me?'_ Ember wondered.

"Then...Then why did you let him blacken your soul? Why would you go with someone as evil as Pitch!" Jack stammered. '_There's no way anyone would so willingly follow a guy like Pitch and allow him to blacken there soul forever. He must of made her believe that she had a choice.' _Jack pondered. There was something wrong behind this, and he needed to find out.

Ember glared up at Jack, she didn't know why she was so mad at his question. "Why do you want to know so badly Jack?" Ember turned to face him, making herself a bit taller so that she didn't feel so small compared to him. Jack backed up a little and hesitated.

"Because! There is no way a girl like you could possible want to be consumed by darkness and fear! From the first day I meet you Ember, you had a light in your eyes. But it was suppressed by darkness, hate, and fear. It's still suppressed, and it glows brighter and brighter whenever your out of the shadows, and when you laugh and have fun. I see it light up when your underneath the stars and the moon!

"There's no way a person with that kind of light in there eyes would allow themselves to be consumed by such a darkness. It makes me think that Pitch forced you to be his daughter, that he forces you make nightmares and bring fear to others. And as a Guardian I can't stand by and watch and innocent person be controlled and manipulated by such a thing as Pitch." Jack exclaimed. He couldn't stand to see the light in Ember suppressed much longer.

"Stop! Just stop Jack! You don't know what happened! You don't know what I've been threw! Pitch was there when no one else was, and hes all I got. I choose to be with him. Goodbye Jack." Ember snapped. It took everything in her not to slap him, so she decided to disappear quickly. Before Jack could stop her from leaving Ember was on her dragon disappearing into the night.

_'What did she mean by "he was all that I had"? I have to find out what happened to her...' _Jack wondered as he shook his head and flew off into the cold night air.

* * *

Ember went back to work to try and get her mind off of what happened that night. It worked for the most part, but her mind kept seeming to wonder back to what Jack had said about the light in her eyes. She knew it was there, a bit of good suppressed by evil. It was the only way she could make the dream sand.

_'Just because I have some good left in me doesn't mean Pitch would try and control me!' _Ember fumed. She was beyond irritated at jack for coming up with such a foolish theory.

But something did take Ember's mind off of Jacks foolish theory for a while. While Ember was giving a young girl a nightmare she had knocked her pillow off her bed, exposing a tooth. Ember stood there stunned. It was a tooth! It was exactly what she needed to figure out her plan for destroying Toothina. So Ember quickly snatched it up and let it rest gently in her palm.

Ember sprinkled some nightmare sand over the tooth and waited to see if anything would happen. For a few moments nothing happened. But then the tooth started to rot and dissolve in Ember's palm, leaving behind a tiny pile of black dust. The girl in the bed started squirming in unease from having her memory's destroyed, never being able to look back on them again.

Suddenly their came a loud high pitch'd squeak from the window beside the young girls bed. It was one of Toothina's fairy's. Terror filled the fairy's eyes as she looked from Ember to the pile of rotting tooth in her hand. Ember quickly let the remains of the tooth fall to the floor and disappeared into the shadows as fast as she could.

Ember knew Toothina would be hearing about this soon, which would mean she would have to tell Pitch about it soon. But Ember wasn't worried about that at the moment. She was so excited that the nightmare sand had actually worked! Her plan would fall easily into place now.

_~Chapter 8~_

That night Tislar Lunar decided it was time to take action, and rescue Ember from herself. She didn't know what was good for her, and something needed to be done. So he decided to call the Guardians together.

Tislar positioned the moon right over Nicholas St. North's workshop and beamed moonlight in through the ceiling, and the windows trying to get someones attention. Luckily, one of North's yetis was standing right under one of Tislar's moon beams and instantly noticed. The yeti bowed and instantly ran off to fetch North and tell him of Tislar's arrival.

The yeti knocked on North's office door, remembering how North was always telling them to knock first.

"Come in!" North answered. The yeti opened the door to find North working on one of his famous ice sculptures. He was making an ice replica of Big Root the famous oak tree he used to live in with the wizard Ombric and the brave young girl Katherine. "What is it Phil?" North asked without looking up from his work.

Phil barked that Tislar Lunar was awaiting North. North dropped his tiny tools and finally looked up at Phil.

"What? Manny is here?" North questioned furrowing his bushy brows. Phil nodded and motioned with both arms to the door.

North stood up and quickly walked out of his office and into the main room where his globe of the world was. Millions of tiny bright lights dotted the globe, covering most land masses. Moonlight filled the room and reflected off the globe, nearly blinding North.

"Manny! What is big news old friend?" North beamed as shaded his eyes from the blinding moon light.

Manny moved all of his moon beams into one and maneuvered it so that it shined upon the lever that signaled the Guardians.

"You want to call a meeting?" North asked, making sure he fully understood Manny. The moon beam flashed in approval.

So North went over to the control panel for the globe and pulled the lever that signaled the Guardians. Instantly multicolored streams of light shot from the globe and lit up the sky, shinning all the way around the world to signal the Guardians.

"Prepare for company!" North shouted to the yetis and elves that had started to gather around him. They instantly started scrambling to prepare drinks and food for the guests to come.

It didn't take long for the Guardians to start arriving. E. Aster Bunnymund was the first to arrive, bounding out of one of his holes he uses to travel.

"Whats the big fuss about this time?" Bunnymund huffed as he hopped over to the fire and started to warm his fur, he clearly never liked the cold. "I have eggs that need painting you know."

"Yes yes, I know. But we will find out when the others get here." North said as he joined Bunnymund by the fire, leaning against the mantle piece.

After another moment Toothina and her faeries arrived, joining North and Bunnymund by the fire. Toothina continued ordering her faeries to go to different states and towns to collect teeth while Bunnymund and North tried to carry on a civilized conversation for once. After another couple minuets or so Jack and Sandy come rushing in through one of the open windows.

"Haha! I win again Sandy!" Jack shouted as he pumped his fist in the air. Sandy just fumed and turned to the other Guardians, forming a question mark above his head with dream sand.

"Ahh yes, now that we are all here we can hear what Manny has to tell us." North said as he turned to the moon. The others followed suit and gathered around North. "What is big news Manny?" North asked.

Tislar moved his moon beam to the center of the room and waited for the Guardians to turn and watch. The Guardians all turn and circle around the moon beam, curious as to what Tislar was about to show them. Tislar's moon beam flashed and started to morph itself into the shape of a teenage girl. Jack, Sandy, and Toothina all gaped at the image. It was Ember.

"That's her! That's the girl my fairy's saw destroy the memory's of an innocent young child tonight!." Toothina spat as her feathers ruffled up, her hands balling themselves up into fists.

"What? Ember wouldn't do that." Jack advocated as his brows furrowed.

"Jack, you know this girl?" North asked giving Jack a questioning look.

Sandy instantly started jumping up and down, waving his arms in the air with a broad smile on his face.

"You to, Sandy?" North asked furrowing his brows.

"Sandy, you know Ember to?" Jack asked in surprise, he thought he was the only one who knew of her. Sandy nodded yes, a bright smile appearing on his face. "Haha! Isn't she amazing?" Jack beamed as he bounced on the balls of his feet. Sandy nodded enthusiastically and gave a thumbs up.

North grunted and Jack and Sandy both stopped bouncing up and down. "Sorry North. She is Ember Black, new daughter of Pitch Black." Jack explained to them.

"What!" Bunnymund shouted, his eyes wide. "Pitch... No. He couldn't of have."

"He did. But according to her she choose to be his daughter." Jack replied, knowing the shock that Bunnymund was feeling.

"She _chose _to be his daughter? No way mate, no one in there right mind would choose to live with such a thing." Bunnymund shook his head, just like Jack had said no one would ever choose to be with such a person as Pitch.

"Do you think Pitch forced her to be his daughter?" Toothina asked as worry replaced her anger. Toothina hated the fact that Ember had desecrated and destroyed a young girls memory's, but the fact that Pitch had something to do with it made Toothina worry that Pitch had blackened an innocent child soul. Toothina couldn't stand the thought of it.

"Something tells me that's why Manny has called us all together." North remarked as he stared thoughtfully at the image of Ember.

"What should we do?" Bunnymund asked as he joined Norths side by the image of Ember.

Suddenly the moon beam flickered, and the image started to move. A bright light began to shine from the inside of Ember's chest, but something dark and cloudy started to block out the light. Jack knew what Tislar was trying to tell them. It was the light being suppressed in Ember.

"Her soul wasn't completely blackened. She still has a light in her, but it's being suppressed from the darkness inside her." Jack stated. "There's a possibility that we might be able to save her."

"But how will we get her away from Pitch?" Toothina inquired, turning to meet the other Guardians gaze.

"I have an idea." Jack mused. "I'll be right back." Before anyone could protest Jack was already flying out of the window. He knew exactly where to find Ember. The lake by Burgess.

* * *

Ember didn't head back to the cave that night for fear that she might arouse suspicion from Pitch with all her excitement. So she hid in parts of the world that where still under the cover of the night sky and roamed the city's. Ember guessed that she was in Europe from how people who where roaming the dark streets spoke in a thick foreign language. From what she guessed it was Italian, or maybe even French. Ember wasn't too sure. But she loved roaming the beautiful moonlight streets. She had always wanted to visit Europe as a young girl, but never got the chance. So she thoroughly enjoyed being able to roam where she wished.

But there was something still weighing heavily on her mind. She felt a twinge of guilt for storming off and screaming at Jack. Though her life might have not been any of his business, she was still rude to him. And being rude could put a damper on her plan. So Ember decided that once it was night again in Burgess she would go back and apologize to Jack.

After a couple more hours of roaming around what Ember guessed was Paris, the sun started to rise and she headed back to Burgess. The sun was just starting to go down in Burgess, the last rays of light reflecting off the frozen lake casting dozens of dancing shadows in every direction. It was magical to Ember, how the shadows danced and played. For fun she manipulated her shadow and the shadows of the trees, turning them into dancing figures. They danced as if they where at a fancy ball, it was truly quite amusing for Ember.

Once the sun had fully disappeared behind the horizon Ember went and sat in her favorite oak tree and waited for Jack to show up. To keep herself occupied she created mini dragons, some with nightmare sand and others with regular dream sand. She laid back and watched the mini dragons fight each other, some shooting dream sand at each other, others swooping in on each other and destroying them. It was very amusing to Ember.

But it wasn't very amusing to Pitch, who sat in the shadows watching Ember create the dream sand. He couldn't believe his eyes, Ember was creating dream sand! Pure dream sand! _'How is this possible?' _Pitch wondered. _'Did the fearlings not completely blacken her soul?' _Pitch shook his head. But then he thought of something else. _'Or has she been with the Guardians...' _The thought infuriated Pitch. He couldn't contain himself any longer.

"Hello, Ember." Pitch called as he walked out of the shadows. Ember froze, her dragons disappearing.

Pitch waited for Ember to gather herself and hop out of the tree. It took Ember a second to gather herself, but she instantly hoped out of the tree and came to stand in front of Pitch. Ember would have said something, but she was couldn't will herself to speak.

"What do you think you where doing?" Pitch growled as he glared down at Ember. Ember didn't know what to say. She tried to speak, but nothing came out leaving her mouth just hanging open. Pitch just glared down at Ember, he couldn't believe it.

"Please... Father I can explain." Ember stuttered, terrified that Pitch would reprimand her for calling him father. But Pitch didn't reprimand her, he just glared.

"You can explain back at the Lair." Pitch sneered. Before Ember could move Pitch had a firm grip around her wrists, his nails threatening to break skin.

Ember didn't dare try and struggle, she would be a fool if she did. If anything she didn't mind Pitch being near her, because fearlings began to swarm the forest around them. Their beady eyes and horrible screeches could be seen and heard at the forests edge, like they where waiting for something. But right as Pitch was about to drag Ember back to the lair, Jack Frost appeared behind him.

Jack had spotted Pitch and Ember from a distance. He saw how Pitch had ruffly grabbed Ember's wrists and the fearlings gathering in the woods, he knew Ember was in trouble. His thoughts where confirmed, Pitch had to be controlling Ember. But Pitch didn't seem to notice that Jack was flying towards them, his back was turned and his attention fully on Ember.

But Ember did notice him right away, she saw him right as Jack reared up his staff to attack Pitch. Ember became fully alert and sprang into action. She wrenched her wrists from Pitch's grasp despite the nails that dug into her and sprang around Pitch. Ember threw her arms up creating a thick wall of nightmare sand blocking Pitch right as Jack's energy bolt of ice was about to hit him.

The two forces met sending ice and nightmare sand everywhere. Quickly Ember re-directed the nightmare sand towards Jack and hitting him square in the stomach, knocking him off his feet and sending him flying back a couple feet back. Jack looked up bewildered. He didn't expect Ember to defend Pitch, and apparently neither did Pitch. Pitch looked just as bewildered as Jack, if not even more. Yet there was something like a smirk that crossed Pitch's face as he watched Jack get sent flying.

"Jack, stay out of it." Ember snapped at Jack. The look Ember gave Jack made him recoil a little, yet there was something else. Yes, Jack new it all to well. There was a trace of fear, and sorrow in Ember's eyes.

Pitch put his hands on Ember's shoulders, smirking at Jack before he vanished into the shadows taking Ember with him. He yelled at them to stop, reaching out his hands as if he would catch them. But they where gone.

Jack had to warn the Guardians that Ember was in danger, and quickly. Something wasn't right about the way Ember looked, and it worried Jack to think of what could have happened to make her look so afraid and so sad. He needed to get her out of Pitch's grasp. So Jack instantly hopped back on his feet and flew off as fast as he could to North's workshop.

_~Chapter 9~_

Ember stumbled into the cave as Pitch pushed her out of the shadows, nearly tripping over her own feet. Pitch manipulated his shadow so that he was surrounding every side of Ember, making it seem more like a nightmare.

"So you and Jack know each other? You must be great friends if he was willing to ambush me to try and save you." Pitch sneered, his voice echoing throughout the cave. The fearlings started to peak out of the shadows, smiling as their master raged on.

"No, please you don't understand! Let me explain please!" Ember begged the shadows. She wanted to recoil into herself, but she had to stand tall and not let her fear get the best of her.

"You deliberately disobeyed me Ember! I asked you multiple times if you had run into the Guardians, and you _lied _to me." Pitch spat the last words like venom. He felt almost betrayed, and yet a little proud at the same time that Ember could be so deceiving. He also couldn't forget the fact that she had just attacked Jack to save him.

As Pitch got louder and more menacing, the fearlings came a little closer to Ember. They started to surround her, but they didn't get to close for fear that Pitch would kill them. They remembered Pitch's threat about getting to close to Ember, and they didn't dare betray him while he was angry. But they got close enough to Ember to make her remember her nightmare that she once had, the one where Pitch cast her out and left her to die at the hands of the fearlings. The thought that her nightmare would come true made her bones quake, but she had to stay strong. She _had_ to.

"Please, I can-"Ember began, but she was cut off by Pitch. He pulled all of his shadows together and stepped out of no where, swiftly grabbing Ember's wrist and wrenching it behind her back.

"After all I gave you. I gave you a home, a new life, a loving family. All that you wished for, and you _betrayed_ me." Pitch hissed in Ember's ear. Ember winced as Pitch dug his nails into her arm. Pitch's words hit Ember like a slap to the face, making her feel like a horrible daughter unworthy of his presence. "I should have just left you to die." He taunted, he knew this would hit Ember right where it hurt. It worked to.

Ember felt a sharp pain hit her. It felt like someone had ripped out her insides and cut them into a million pieces. She closed her eyes to keep the tears from spilling out, and shook her head. _'No. He didn't mean it. Not him, no, no , NO!' _Ember screamed inside her head. She couldn't believe her ears. Of all people that would say something like that, it wouldn't be Pitch. It started to infuriate her, she was tired of people saying stuff like that.

"Would you just let me fucking explain!" Ember demanded, she didn't care if Pitch was mad or not she wouldn't let him say stuff like that.

Pitch was shocked, but only for a moment. He quickly threw Ember up against the nearest cave wall, slamming his hand against the cave wall next to her head so she couldn't escape. She gasped at the sudden movement, accidentally letting out a groan of pain at how her head had slammed into the wall. She watched how his nails dug into the hard stone of the wall's surface. To Ember's amazement pieces of the cave wall crumbled away beneath them and turned to dust.

Ember thought back to those same claws that earlier had been pressing into her arm. She realized then how much Pitch had been holding back, that her flesh could be shredded and pulled apart like warm bread beneath those claws. Pitch might have been mad, but he was not about to truly hurt Ember. It made Ember relax a little knowing this.

"Well?" Pitch scowled, he was growing a little impatient. But he was curious as to what Ember's excuse was. Ember snapped back into reality, and quickly organized her thoughts.

"Please, you have to try and understand. I have a plan, a plan to destroy the Guardians. But it involves trying to gain there trust." Ember explained. Pitch's non-existent eyebrows furrowed. He became interested in what she had to say about this so called _'p__lan'_.

"Go on." Pitch insisted. Ember hid a smile, she knew she could go somewhere with this.

So Ember explained her plan in full detail, making sure she didn't miss a single detail. She told Pitch about how she needed to gain the Guardians trust so that she could trick them. How she needed to learn how to make the dream sand, and how it would lead to Sandy's dismay. She told him the story of the little tooth she destroyed, explaining how the nightmare sand had destroyed the tooth. She expressed her difficulty's about Jack and his staff, but also about how easy North and Bunnymund would be to destroy.

It took Pitch a moment to completely process all that Ember had said, and once he did he smirked. Pitch must have liked her plan because his eyes had changed to gold and they where shinning. Ember had never seen his eyes shine that much, it kinda scared her yet relaxed her. She knew that meant he liked her plan.

"Why did you never tell me this plan before?" Pitch remarked, giving her a quizzical look.

"I tried, believe me. But every time I got a chance you where busy." Ember shrugged her shoulders.

"You have a voice, child. And you have permission to use it. If I'm busy feel free to speak up." Pitch turned away from Ember, his hands joining behind his back as he strode toward the globe in the center of the cave.

"Let this be a lesson though. Don't _ever_ disobey me again." Pitch reminded Ember. Ember felt a twinge of guilt shoot through her. "Now. Your plan, my dear, is far greater than I could have ever realized. Though you have some flaws to work out. But together we will destroy the Guardians, and there will be nothing but fear and darkness." Pitch grinned, his eyes shinning. Ember grinned to, she had no clue her plan might truly work. She was ecstatic of the thought that Pitch would be working by her side now, like father and daughter.

She joined Pitch's side by the globe so that the feralings didn't surround her again, and they started to discuss the plans progress so far and what is to come.

* * *

Jack flew faster than he ever had in his entire life, bursting into North's workshop at break neck speed. The Guardians where almost blown over at the force of wind Jack brought with him.

"Ember's in trouble! We have to save her!" Jack exclaimed.

"Calm down Jack, how is she in trouble?" North asked, trying to calm Jack down with his fatherly tone.

"I saw Pitch hurting and yelling at Ember. There where fearlings everywhere! A-And Ember even stopped me from attacking Pitch." Jack stammered. He was too frantic to try and re account the entire thing in full detail. He just needed to help her and fast! Everyone shared worried looks, they didn't truly know what to do.

"Well... what are we waiting for? Lets go save Ember and kick some evil butt!" Bunnymund declared.

Everyone shouted in agreement, except Sandy who gave an enthusiastic thumbs up, and set off to try and save Ember. They didn't know what to expect, so they fully prepared themselves for a fierce and epic battle.

_~Chapter 10~_

Pitch ordered Ember to go on about her day as usual now that they had settled things. So she went out into the town of Burgess, close to Pitch's lair, and released her nightmares. But Pitch made sure to keep an eye on her this time. So he stayed hidden in the shadows and watched Ember from a distance to make sure she didn't do anything rash.

Ember didn't notice though that she was being watched. Her mind was still focused on how angry Pitch had gotten._ 'I should have just left you to die!' _Pitch's words still stung Ember. Even if Pitch was just saying that out of anger, she still felt like he meant it. She felt like an idiot for believing that someone would actually think she was something more than a silly little girl.

More than once she had to force her eyes shut to keep the tears from spilling out. She hated her emotions. Crying made her feel weak and pathetic, but it also shows a persons biggest weakness. Ember couldn't afford anyone knowing her biggest weakness. So she forced herself to focus more on her nightmares instead of Pitch's rage.

"Ember! Are you alright!" The voice of Jack Frost rang out. Ember quickly spun around and saw the Guardians speeding towards her.

North landed his sleigh on the abandoned street and everyone quickly field out. Ember was rather confused and didn't know what to do. But Pitch had told her to go on with her plan, so she would. She appeared out of an ally way and approached the Guardians with caution. The Guardians looked with awe upon Ember, they didn't know what to expect.

Jack flew forward with a worried expression. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw newly formed bruises upon Ember's wrists in the shape of Pitch's hands.

"What did he do to you?" Jack asked frantically, gently grabbing Ember's hand so he could examine it closer.

"I'm fine, Jack. I promise." Ember wrenched her hand from his. She despised how everyone thought she was some weak girl who couldn't take care of herself.

Ember hesitated as the other Guardians started to come forward to take a closer look at Ember, she didn't know what they would do to her.

"Don't be afraid, Ember. We will not harm you." North reassures Ember as he throws up his hands in surrender. Ember narrowed her eyes in question, she still didn't know if she could trust them yet.

"I promise, Ember. Were here to rescue you, not to harm you." Toothina explained as she flew forward.

"Huh?" Ember asked. "Rescuing from what?"

"From Pitch of course." Toothina answered as if Ember should have already known this.

"What makes you think I need to be rescued? I _choose_ to live with Pitch, i don't need to be rescued." Ember sneered, she was getting angry that no one thinks that someone would choose Pitch. Like he was someone not to even look at.

"Right there is why you need to be rescued, mate. No one in there right mind would choose to be with such a vile man as Pitch!" Bunnymund exclaimed as he strode closer to Ember.

Ember was about explode, but she didn't notice the Guardians where closing in on her. However, Pitch did. He was watching the whole thing go down, and he wasn't about to let the Guardians take away his daughter.

"You know, i could say the same about you rabbit." Pitch spat as he walked out of the shadows behind Ember.

The Guardians backed up a little as Pitch joined Embers side, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. Ember's anger dissipated as soon as his hand was on her shoulder. She felt safer, and more at ease with Pitch by her side.

"Did you really think I would just let you take her away from me without a fight?" Pitch sneered.

"If it's a fight you want then it's a fight you'll get!" Jack shouted angrily as he reared up his staff and shot an icy blast at Pitch.

Without even thinking Ember quickly jumped in front of Pitch and blocked the icy blast with a shield of nightmare sand. The Guardians looked a little stunned at how fast Ember reacted. It made them think that Pitch was using her as a new sort of weapon, only confirming their thoughts even further that she was being controlled.

Pitch smirked at the the Guardians. Yet he was a little surprised that Ember blocked the attack. After all that he had said she was still willing to protect him with her life.

The Guardians all shared a quick glance with each other. They knew exactly what to do. They had to get Ember alone somehow and drag her back to the pole if that's what it would take. So they all sprang into action and drew their weapons. North, Bunnymund, Toothina, and Jack all attacked Pitch at once, and before Ember could block any of there attacks Sandy attacked her with his whips.

Sandy didn't want to attack Ember, but he had to if he was going to save her. So he wrapped his whip around Ember's hand and threw her away from Pitch. Ember landed on her feet and quickly cut the whip away from her wrist with her own sword made out of nightmare sand. She sent spears flying at him, but he blocked the attack with a whip and sent another flying right at her.

Ember suddenly remembered that she could manipulate the dream sand and re directed Sandy's whips. She made the whips come back on Sandy and tangle around his arms and legs. Ember looked frantically around for Pitch and the others and saw Pitch blocking every single attack with his scythe. He didn't look overwhelmed, but he couldn't keep blocking that many blows for forever.

So Ember quickly joined the fight while Sandy was trying to untangle himself. She summoned every ounce of nightmare sand she could and created a giant dragon that was almost the size of a building. The dragon drew back on it's hind legs and roared, then with one big swift movement he breathed a black fire that even surprised Ember.

The fire sent the Guardians flying backwards and ducking for cover. But the dragon pursued them, sending cars parked on the street flying everywhere. It was a miracle no one woke up, but Sandy had put a sleeping spell on everyone in the town of Burgess. Pitch was still staring in awe at the nightmare dragon. He had no clue Ember was capable of such a thing. He wouldn't dare admit it, but even he was scared for a moment by the dragon.

Suddenly out of no where, a golden fire sent the nightmare dragon flying backwards, screeching as it did. Another gigantic dragon came flying from out of the sky and reared just like the nightmare dragon had done. It was of pure dream sand, meaning Sandy had mimicked what Ember had done.

Ember growled and and created a sand arrow to shoot at the other dragon so it would turn into a nightmare. But right as she was about to release the arrow one of Sandy's whips came out of no where and destroyed the arrow. Sandy quickly sent another whip at Ember, but Pitch pushed Ember behind him and thwarted the attack. Pitch drew his scythe and started to fight Sandy, keeping him as far away from Ember as possible. But as Pitch and Sandy started to battle, the Guardians came after Ember since her dragon was preoccupied.

"Ember, please come with us!" Jack begged as he sent frozen spears flying at Ember.

"Never!" Ember growled as she blocked the spears with a wall of sand. But one spear was too quick for Ember and stabbed her in the stomach.

Ember gasped, but did not scream. She had to be tough, for herself and Pitch. Ember grabbed the spear and pulled it out, but as she did a shadowy substance began to spill from the wound. _"__Is this my blood?"_ Ember thought as she stared at the substance.

"Is that all you've got?" Ember taunted as she blocked out the wound.

Ember created an army of nightmares and sent them flying at the Guardians. They scattered the Guardians as they tried to defeat them, but every time a dragon was destroyed three more took its place. Ember nearly doubled over at the shooting pain that emanated from the wound as she moved, but she wouldn't let it keep her from fighting.

Ember took the chance to attack Jack while he was distracted and sent a stream of nightmare sand flying at him. It hit Jack directly in the chest and sent him flying backwards into a car. Jack groaned as he slumped to his knees, his face contorted in pain. He didn't want to fight Ember, he only wanted her to be safe. But if fighting was what it took to get Ember into safe hands than Jack would fight forever.

Jack slowly got to his feet and pointed his staff at Ember. "Ember, I don't want to hurt yo-"

"It's a bit late for that, Jack." Ember snarled as she sent another blast of sand at him. Jack quickly blocked the attack, sending sand and ice everywhere.

"You've got to listen to me Ember!" Jack shouted as he blocked another attack.

"I could say the exact same thing to you." Ember spat.

Suddenly the shouts of Pitch could be heard as he was thrown into a building across from them. One of Sandy's whips followed as it wrapped itself around Pitch again and sent him flying into the air. Before Pitch started falling the whip wrapped around him again and threw him straight to the ground.

Ember spun around to see Pitch lying on the street un conscious. She wanted to race to his side and make sure he was okay, but one of Sandy's dream whips prevented her from doing so. The whip wrapped around her waist and threw her up into the air screaming. Sandy yanked the whip back down slamming her onto the ground just like he had done with Pitch.

Ember was knocked un conscious instantly, the harsh blow making the blood flow more freely from her wound. Jack raced to Ember's side and gently picked her up. She was light, and she felt cold as if she was dead. Her blood stained her corset from where she had gotten stabbed from the spear. Jack couldn't bear to look at it, he couldn't stand the fact that he had caused the injury.

"Hurry, we need to get her to the pole, now!" Jack shouted to the others who were still fighting off the dragons.

North pulled out one of his globes and threw it to the ground shouting, "To the Pole!". Instantly a swirling portal opened up and Jack quickly flew threw it with Ember, followed by Sandy and the others as they made a run for it.

Pitch woke up right in time to see Ember's limp blood stained body being carried off into the portal. Fear raced threw him as he realized his worst fear had come true, Ember had been taken away from him. He was alone again, and Ember was injured. He had to get to Ember if it was the last thing he did and take her back. He had to, or else he would have nothing left.

_~Chapter 11~_

Jack laid Ember down on one of the couches in Norths living room by the fire. He handled her as if she was made of glass, like he would break her if he touched her the wrong way. All the Guardians surrounded Ember, examining her unconscious bloody body.

"Here, I have something that should help the wound." Bunnymund announced as he put a comforting hand on Jacks shoulder.

Bunnymund tapped his foot on the ground and disappeared into a hole that lead back to his warren. There he quickly raced to where he kept his medicinal herbs and medicine. He whipped up an old Pooka recipe that would help quickly heal the wound and keep the wound from bleeding any further. He poured the odd purple and blue liquid into a vial and raced back to the pole as quick as his feet could take him.

Ember was still unconscious when he got back. Everyone was silent and distant, sharing slightly concerned looks from time to time. Bunnymund joined Jacks side by Ember and found where she had been stabbed. He wiped away some of the blood with a wet medicinal cloth and tipped the substance onto the wound. The liquids swirled together and disappeared into the wound, making the bleeding stop almost instantaneously.

Suddenly Ember's eyes popped open, wide with fear and confusion. Her eyes found Bunnymund and Jack staring down at her with wild expressions, making her jump back as far as she could. But though the wound had stopped bleeding, the pain had not. Ember had completely forgotten about the wound. She winced and grabbed at it.

"Try not to make any sudden movements, it could rip open your wound and make it bleed again." Bunnymund instructed.

"Where am I?" Ember asked. She looked around and saw North leaning against the mantle piece by the fire. Toothina and Sandy stood nearby and watched hesitantly.

"Your in Norths workshop, your safe now." Jack explained.

"Safe?" Ember exclaimed. "I was safe before all this mess! I was safe before you fucking stabbed me, Jack!" Embers harsh tone made everyone recoil a little. Ember scowled and pushed herself up from the couch, wincing a little as she did.

"Listen, Ember I'm sorry. But it was the only way to get you away from Pitch." Jack began.

"Ugh, when will you Guardians understand I _choose _to be with Pitch!" Ember cried. She was getting fed up with the Guardians now.

"Yes, but why would a girl like you choose such a horrible life?" North argued.

Ember looked down at her feet. She hated to remember her past. But there seemed to be no other way but to tell them. "Fine, you want to know why I choose to be with Pitch? It's because I had no one. I was alone. No one would even glance in my direction, and when they did all they did was scoff. They all thought I was worthless, stupid, no one believed in me. If they had the chance they would have left me for dead. The only thing that kept me alive was books, and the hope that there was someone listening to my cry for help.

"But one day my cry for help was answered. I was laying out under the night sky talking to the man in the moon when my family was attacked by fearlings. They killed my parents, and would have killed me to. But Pitch decided to save me, and he offered me a loving family, a new life where I wouldn't be alone. How could I refuse? It's not like any of you came to save me." Ember shrugged. She hatted recalling that memory, she just wanted to live in the moment and not look back. Besides, it was better now than it could ever have been back then.

The Guardians all looked at each other with guilty looks. "If you don't believe me than I will gladly pull out a tooth and let you see." Ember added, glancing at Toothina.

"I'm sorry Ember, I-I didn't know." Jack stammered.

"If we had known than we would have come right away." Toothina added flying over to Ember and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, well it's all in the past. Besides, I love being with Pitch. He was like me, alone and without a family. He understood my situation, and I understood his." Ember smiled. She was of actual use to Pitch now that she thought about it.

"Humph, _his_ fearlings killed your family though. Technically he made it so that you were truly alone." Bunnymund commented.

Ember was about to argue, but a loud bang caught everyone's attention. It came from the ceiling where the sky roof was. There was another, and then another. Then thousand and thousands of monkeys started to drop from the roof into the room. The Guardians and Ember were bewildered, they had no clue what was going on. But they instantly drew their weapons and started to cut down each monkey that drew near them.

The Yeti's and elves came thundering into the room to help with the fight, but every time one monkey was taken down three more took it's place. Ember tried to help with the fight, creating swords and violently cutting down several monkeys at a time. But her wound slowed her down a little, and she was forced to be slowly pushed back.

The monkeys would catapult themselves in the air and try to grab at Toothina's wings, but she dogged them and let them fall to the ground in a crumpled heap. She summoned her fairies to help with the fight as she flew through the air and cut down any monkey that got within her reach. But she nearly stopped dead in her tracks when she saw one last monkey fall from the roof. It was the Monkey King, her number one enemy.

She bolted after him, her swords glinting in the air as she did. But when they meet he blocked her swords with his own and threw her off balance. "I'm not here for you, you silly Queen." The King spat as he raced on. Toothina couldn't believe her ears, then who was he after?

Her question was soon answered. The Monkey King was racing towards Ember, his swords at the ready. Toothina tried to fly to her rescue, but several monkeys blocked her path and restricted her from moving any further.

"Ember! Behind you!" Toothina shouted from across the room as she cut down another monkey.

Ember turned around just in time to see the Monkey King coming straight at her. She didn't have much strength left to fight, but she had to if she was going to live. She sent a wave of nightmare sand at the surrounding monkeys and threw them back far enough to have time to fight off the King. When there swords meet the Monkey King smiled a rotten yellow toothed smile.

"You will be coming with us my dear." The King smirked as he knocked Ember back.

"Like hell I am." Ember growled. She knew who the Monkey King was from the tales. But she had no clue what the King would want with her.

She sent a swarm of nightmare wolves at him that multiplied when you cut them down. It kept the King at bay for a while as she sent the surrounding monkeys back again. But they just doubled up and drew closer in. The Guardians tried to make their way towards her, but there were to many monkeys by now. Their numbers only kept growing.

Ember had no energy left when the King finally destroyed the wolves. Ember could only weakly block his attacks, and he got stronger by each blow. Soon the other monkeys were on top of her and her wound was starting to bleed again. The Monkey King wrenched her up by her hair and started to drag her off. Ember struggled as much as she could, clawing at the Monkey Kings hand and trying to pull out of his grip. But it was no use.

"Stop struggling you fool." The King screeched. But Ember didn't. Instead she kicked the Monkey King as hard as she could. The King howled at the searing pain in his thigh, but he didn't loosen his grip.

"I warned you." The King hissed and pulled out his sword once more. With one swift movement Ember was run through. It wasn't a deadly blow, but it was enough to make Ember scream in pain and stop struggling.

"Jack! Anyone help!" Ember cried out as tears started to race down her cheeks from the pain in her stomach.

"Damn you, now my sword is all bloody." The King sighed as he put it back in his sheath.

The Guardians all cried out to Ember, but nothing could be done. They had to watch Ember be dragged away by the Monkey King. No matter how hard they fought they didn't make any progress. With a blink of an eye Ember and the King were gone with only Ember's blood left to stain the floor.

_~Chapter 12~_

By the time Pitch arrived at North's workshop the Guardians were starting to grow weary. It was becoming harder and harder to fight off the monkeys. Every time they cut one down there was still another to replace it. Dead monkeys covered the floor, and yet there was still more. It was starting to become intolerable, especially knowing Ember was in danger and severely wounded.

"Where is she!" Pitch shouted as he cut down a monkey. As soon as he had stepped out of the shadows monkeys began to swarm him.

The Guardians had never seen Pitch look so mad in their lives. He was cutting down monkeys twice as fast as them combined and was quickly making his way towards the Guardians.

"Pitch! Ember was captured by the Monkey King!" Jack exclaimed as he threw a monkey off of him.

"She has been injured too!" Toothina added.

"You foolish Guardians! How dare you take her away from me and then let her be captured." Pitch scowled. _"Why the hell did the Monkey King capture her."_ Pitch thought to himself.

"We tried our best to save her, but there are too many monkeys as you can see." North grunted as he cut off the head of a monkey.

"Ugh, you pathetic fools." Pitch sneered. He knew exactly how to get rid of the monkeys. He had after all worked with them at one time, and knew what terrified them most.

Pitch cut down a row of monkeys and before the next row could take its place Pitch summoned all of his fearlings. Every last one of them came flooding into the workshop, killing every single monkey and scaring off the rest that remained. The Guardians finished off the ones that they were fighting and nearly fell over from exhaustion. As soon as the every last monkey was gone Pitch summoned the fearlings back to him. But they did not leave, they merely gathered behind Pitch waiting for another chance to attack.

"I never thought I would say this, but thank you mate." Bunnymund thanked Pitch. Everyone looked surprised that Bunnymund had said such a kind thing towards Pitch, but they all nodded in agreement. If it wasn't for him they would have been too exhausted to keep fighting and wouldn't be able to fight them off any longer. Pitch practically saved the Guardians, which was as rare as Bunnymunds kindness.

Pitch scowled. "If anyone will kill you it will be me. Not some pathetic monkey army. But sadly I can't stay to fight." As much as Pitch wanted to kill every single one of them, he did have to save Ember. With one last glare Pitch disappeared back into the shadows along with his fearlings. He knew exactly where to find Ember, in the Monkey King's hide out.

"Humph, there's the Pitch we know." Bunnymund smirked. They all shared a quick smile, thankful that Pitch didn't decide to release his wrath upon them.

"What a mess." North sighed as he sat down on the couch where Ember had previously laid. The others joined him, glad for a chance to rest.

"Shouldn't we try and help Pitch find Ember." Jack asked, still anxious about Ember.

"No, I think that Pitch has got that under control. I can feel that he will." North answered patting his belly.

"Besides, I don't think any of us have ever seen Pitch so worked up over something. If it wasn't for the hurry I'm sure he would have killed us off then and there." Bunnymund added as he massaged his shoulders. They all nodded in agreement. All they could do now was rest and wait to see what would happen.

* * *

Meanwhile Pitch flew to Ember's aid, his fearlings on his heals. He traveled to the forest near Punjam Hy Loo where the Monkey King liked to live. Pitch didn't know if the Monkey King still lived in the same section of the forest he used to, but all he had to do was follow the strong scent of monkey which was stronger than the scent of bacon in the morning.

Thankfully Pitch knew the forest well and didn't take long to navigate his way through it. He soon came upon the section of forest that the Monkey King was known to rule. Sure enough he could hear the howling and screeching of monkeys not far off. But something caught his attention as he was about to enter the Monkey Kings lair. It was a thick black shadowy substance. It was Ember's blood. Pitch growled. He would kill this pathetic excuse for a king.

"Why hello my King." The Monkey King purred as Pitch strode into the center of the Monkey Kings lair. Pitch's eyes flew to were the Monkey King's voice had came from and found him holding his sword against Ember's throat. She was bound to a tree with blood soaking her dress.

"Father!" Ember cried out with a weak voice. She had lost soo much blood by now that it was nearly impossible to function regularly. She was scared, and in so much pain that it was nearly blinding.

Pitch took a step forward, but the Monkey King pressed his sword deeper into Ember throat causing her to wince. "Take one step closer and your precious daughter will loose her head." The King warned.

"What is it you want you pathetic fool." Pitch sneered. He didn't take to kindly to threats.

"Ahh, yes. You know exactly what I want." The King began.

"I'm afraid you will be disappointed." Pitch replied with a blank expression.

"Oh don't tell me you've forgotten already! We joined forces at one time, for the same reason to. To be more powerful! But then you betrayed me, and left me to die at the hands of that Queen." The king spat. "Well, not this time. This time, you will bring me that precious relic of the Queens and I will become the strongest King in the world!" All the monkeys that surrounded them started to screech and howl in excitement at their kings tiny speech.

But Pitch was rather amused. "You really think that I would help _you?" _Pitch laughed. "You really think such a weak pathetic monkey like you can control me?"

"Oh but I do! You see, I have something very important to you. I have had my monkeys watch you from time to time, and the only thing that makes you hesitate is your darling daughter. Now you wouldn't want to lose her, now would you?" The King taunted as he moved his sword so that a drop of blood came trickling down Ember's throat.

"How amusing." Pitch laughed. "But I'm afraid we will have to cut your little monkey business short."

With one swift movement all the fearlings swarmed the surrounding monkeys while Pitch disappeared into the shadows of the forest. The Monkey King looked around frantically for Pitch, but he was no where in sight. He growled and was about to kill Ember on the very spot when he was knocked down and pinned to the ground by Pitch with a sword at his throat.

"No! Wait please, forgive me!" The Monkey King howled as he tried to pull away from Pitch. But there was no use.

Pitch scoffed. "You really think you deserve such a peaceful fate as death? Ha ha, I don't think so. You're a waist of my time, go back to living your days in misery before I decide to leave you to my fearlings." Pitch scowled as he grabbed the Monkey King by the throat and threw him off to join the rest of the monkeys who were running from the fearlings.

The monkeys all cried as they were chased off by the fearlings to the forests edge. Pitch scoffed and quickly turned to Ember. He cut the vines that bound Ember to the tree with one swift movement and she fell to her knees.

Pitch knelled down beside Ember and took her into his arms. He saw where she had been run through and stabbed along with the shadowy blood that stained her. Ember knew she was close to death, and she was terrified. She didn't want to leave Pitch. She desperately clung onto Pitch, as if she would slip away if she let go.

"Shh, it's going to be okay." Pitch spoke with such a softness he never even knew he had. He picked Ember up and cradled her frail body in his arms. She clung onto him and began to sob into his chest.

"I'm so sorry father. But I couldn't fight them off." Ember sobbed into his chest. She felt like such a burden to Pitch, like everything was her fault.

"It's not your fault, you were seriously injured. Besides, you've seriously impressed me. I had no clue you could fight like that." Pitch admitted. Ember smiled a little through her tears and the searing pain.

Ember clung onto Pitch's robe as he disappeared back into the shadows. he didn't have much time to get Ember the care she desperately needed. Pitch only knew of one place that he could find that help, and as much as he despised the idea it was his only hope. So he moved as quick as the shadows could take him back to the North Pole where he would be able to find help.

_~Chapter 13~_

Jack and the others were beginning to become worried about Ember. It had been almost an hour or so since Pitch left to go rescue her. Jack was seriously thinking about just flying off to go find her on his own when Pitch appeared from the shadows. The Guardians all turned there heads at once to find a motionless body covered in a thick shadowy substance curled into Pitch's arms. Toothina gasped and jumped back.

"Don't just stand there gawking you fools! She needs help!" Pitch roared.

"Follow me, I have a spare bed that she may lay on." North motioned for Pitch to follow.

Pitch followed North down a hallway that led to multiple gets beds, the others following swiftly behind him. North pushed open the nearest door and beckoned Pitch in. It was a rather nice bed. It was clad in the usual Christmas colors you would expect like silver, red, and green. Pitch nearly gagged at the silky colors, it made the room to bright for his taste. But he didn't really have much of a choice at this point.

Pitch went to lay Ember down in the bed, but she just clung to Pitch's robe like she would drift off and be taken away if she did. Ember wasn't fully conscious. She couldn't make out her surroundings or any of the voices that seemed to ring out from time to time. But she did know that Pitch was there with her. He was still here with her, and she didn't want him to leave her.

Pitch felt like what was left of his heart was breaking. He hated to see Ember like this. He could already smell her sweet delicious fear oozing from her as he gently pulled her from his robe and laid her down. It wasn't that hard to break her grip even if Ember was trying her best to hold on. He had lost so much blood and energy that it was a miracle she wasn't dead already.

"Here, let me take a look at her so I know what I need to go get." Bunnymund announced as he pushed his way past the others and joined Pitch by Ember's side.

Bunnymund did a full examination of Ember. He looked to see how deep each stab wound was and what he would need to keep anymore blood from escaping her. Ember was closer to death than anyone had thought, it thoroughly frightened Bunnymund. He would need to leave now if he was to save Ember, but even then he might not be in time to save her.

"I'll be right back. I have to go my medical supplies." Bunnymund began. "Try your best to keep her from moving." With that, Bunnymund tapped his foot and was gone with a flash.

"Pitch..." Jack began as he moved forward, trying to put a consoling hand on his shoulder.

"Shut up, _Frost._" Pitch hissed as he slapped his hand away. "You are half the reason she's... like _this_!" Pitch exclaimed as he motioned his hand toward Ember motionless body. Pitch sneered and returned his attention back to Ember.

Jack was about to argue with Pitch, but North and Toothina both put a hand on Jack's shoulder and pulled him away. "Jack, come. Leave him for a bit."

It took every ounce of self control Jack had, which wasn't much, to force himself to leave the room and wait outside for Bunnymund to return. He knew Pitch was right though. He was the reason Ember didn't have enough strength to fight off the Monkey King in the first place. If only he had realized that Ember was telling the truth in the first place. But it also struck Jack as odd. Pitch gave her a choice to have a new life, to pursue her dream of having a loving family. It seemed the more he thought about it, the more it seemed that Pitch was actually a nice guy deep down. Then again, he was guilty that he couldn't have come to save Ember in her time of fear. He would have loved to bring Ember back to the Guardians to help her start a new life, her dream. But it was rather late for that. Ember belonged to Pitch now, or more so she choose to be with him.

As the others waited outside Pitch desperately waited by Ember's side. There were moments when Ember would breath so softly that Pitch didn't think she was breathing at all. He would squeeze her ice cold hands and make sure she wasn't dead. Ember would make a strangled noise and Pitch would sigh with relief.

_"Damn these emotions, it's just a silly little girl. It doesn't matter to me weather she lives or dies." _Pitch thought. But even as the words formed in his head he knew he was lying to himself. Of course he cared about Ember, even if he hated to admit it. Ember had become more than a girl he found that desperately wanted to escape reality. Ember became his daughter, someone that he could never live without.

Suddenly Ember's chest had completely stopped moving. Not even the slightest breath escaped her, or entered her lungs. Pitch squeezed her hand again to make sure she was alright, but there was no response. Her hand was completely limp in his, just a cold limb. Pitch noticed that he couldn't smell Ember's fear any longer, it had completely stopped.

"Ember?" Pitch asked, squeezing her hand harder. No answer. "Ember!" Pitch tried again a little louder, shaking Ember a little. Still no answer. Just dead silence. Pitch dropped Ember's hand and slowly backed up. He couldn't believe his eyes. Ember was _dead. _She was actually dead.

"No no no. This isn't possible. She can't be dead... No, she couldn't have left me." Pitch assured himself. But the fear was already taking root inside of him. "Where is that damned Pooka!" Pitch growled as he ran both of his hands through his hair.

Just as Pitch was about to go find him, Bunnymund and the other Guardians stormed into the room. Bunnymund had a bag filled with an odd variety of plants and liquids. He raced to Ember's side, but nearly stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Pitch. Bunnymund looked at Ember to Pitch, and back to Ember. "No." Bunnymund breathed.

Bunnymund lifted one of Ember's lifeless hands in his paw and waited to see if he could read a heart beat. But he got nothing. He put his ear up to her chest and listened as hard as he could. But still nothing. Bunnymund shook his head.

"Mate... I'm sor-" Bunnymund began.

"Bring her back. Just _bring her back_!" Pitch interrupted. He didn't want to hear apologies. He wanted Ember to be alive and breathing again.

Bunnymund nodded. But he wasn't sure if what he had would bring Ember back to life or not. He could only hope.

_~Chapter 14~_


End file.
